The Mud Angels' Legacy

by Diego Perdomo

A framed cutout of an article covering the 1966 flood of the Arno in Florida State University's Florence Program campus.

A list sharing the names of all the mud angels from FSU.

In 1966, Florida State University Flying High circus performers made the decision to stay and help the city of Florence after the 1966 flood of the Arno. This decision, likely made from a moral position to provide short term help, blossomed into a longstanding relationship between FSU and Florence.

Known as angeli di fango, or mud angels, the students, alongside Stanford students helped recover and salvage artwork damaged in the flood. Popular areas like the Piazza della Signora, Piazza del Duomo and Piazza di Santa Croce were all flooded, with areas like Santa Croce reaching up to 22 feet in water.

Abigail Sikes and Kassidy Gaw, program assistants for the FSU Florence program, are both alumni of the international program.

“I loved it. It was my first semester at FSU, and I was here for it,” Gaw said. “There's a lot of history. I built great relationships with my professors. And it really opened my eyes to how different places are from the United States and made me want to travel more.”

An assortment of pictures throughout the campus.

FSU’s study center offers multiple specialized courses for programs in hospitality, English, communications, business, fashion, Italian and more. In addition to the classrooms named after iconic Florence locations like Uffizi and Santo Spirito, there is a fashion studio, kitchen. The center essentially works as a full-time campus with fall, spring and summer terms, over 30 classes, permanent staff and faculty, a café and limited student housing on the floors above the campus.

A page in the FSU alumni guestbook where graduates of the program leave their final messages to future students.

While the program was established the same year as the Flood, the FSU Florence campus opened in 2020. The center is located within the Bagnesi Palace. The Bagnesi Family was prominent in the 14th and 15th centuries. Belonging to the Bankers and Wool Guilds, or quasi-union societies serving the best interests of their members, the Bagnesi’s were involved in organizing the construction of the Brunelleschi’s dome.

In summer 2023, there were 270 enrolled students with each group getting bigger, according to Gaw and Sikes.

Mud Angels, statue by professor Alan Pacuzzi, was created for the center.

“(Florence locals are) familiar with the flood, but not FSU’s part in it,” Sikes said. “In essence, because we have such an established presence here now, they're used to Florida State students always being here, because there’s a large number of us. So, once you say you’re from FSU, you're almost guaranteed an ‘Oh! A Florida State student,’ which is really cool. It's really interesting that we have that relationship with the locals.”

Despite this relative obscurity, FSU keeps the culture of unexpected connections alive within its programs.

“I was at one of the bars the other day, and the table across from us asked, “Where are you from?,” (I said) “Florida State,” Sikes said. “And they're like, “We're on our anniversary visiting Florence because we met at the FSU program. And they got married and were just visiting. It’s so crazy like how small the world feels.”